A Christmas love story

My name is Eileen.  When I was young, (about 13 years of age) I asked my mother how would I know when I was truly in love?

"You will know when your heart starts racing, when you want to spend every waking moment and when all you see is stars.

It turns out she was right.  I fell in love when I wasn't even looking for it.  I want to share my love story with you.

☆☆☆☆☆

t's not unusual to be competitive in small towns such as Basin, Arkansas, especially at Christmas time.  Every year our town had store competitions.  There were competitions for the most authentic gingerbread houses, the best storefronts and the most original christmas house light scenes.  So when the mayor announced the bakery contest it only seemed logical that Puffed Cream would be the favored choice.  There were only four bakeries in the small town that would be competing, and I have to admit I am a little prejudiced because I've been working there since high school graduation.

The Cake Helping was on Henry street where they offered every type of chocolate cake that any child or adult would drool over.  The bakery would invite their customers to sit at the small formica tables placed throughout the store.  Their motto was tickle your sweet tooth.

Cookies-R-Us was located on 3rd Street, right near the town square.  The bakery had been around longer than I was living, and I remember standing on line with my mother on line for what seemed like forever.  The cookies were slways fresh and the owners would donate the left over cookies to the methodist church and orphanage a few blocks away.  

The fourth bakery was the Adam's Apple which prided itself in desserts filled with sweet (or sour apples).  They were rhe newest bakery in town, but were starting to become just as popular as the other existing bakeries.

The Mayor called a town meeting and announced that he wanted to make the competition to be friendly instead of "who made the best sweet treat."  Since there were only four bakeries that would be tested, he chose to have the rival bakeries work together.

Eah bakery was required to come up with the most original christmas muffins.  The ingredients had to include fresh fruit, sugar-free products, and be low in fat.  (Since the mayor had a struggle with his own portly body, he wanted to be able to partake in enjoying the winning entry.)

Then the mayor announced the bakeries.  

"Cream Puff with Eileen McDuff and Franklin Pierpont from the Adams Apple will join their efforts and the Cake Helping with Arlene Minsk and Robin Griffith will be the opponents.  Starting tomorrow morning, you will have four days to complete your entries.  May the best Christmas Muffin 

Franklin called me at the bakery later that day to set the stage and introduce himself to me.  Since the Cream Puff was larger in space and had more ovens, he decided that we should work there.

"Okay, I said.  Let's meet at ten tomorrow at the Cream Puff."  When I got off the phone with him I started to wonder what kind of man was behind that voice.  Was he young; my age? Or was he an older man.  His voice was deep and throaty, but also very innocent sounding.  Well I would have to wait to find out.

The next morning I dressed in the cleanest uniform I had and put a little blush and lipstick to hide the paleness of my skin. I didn't know why I was so nervous about meeting a competitor.  I was used to working with strangers from every walk of life.

I looked out the window about ten o'clock and saw this young man walking toward the store and a few others lagging behind.  But none showed any interest in looking especially for me.

All of a sudden, there was a knock on my office door and Gina, one of the cashiers popped her head in to announce that there was a Frank Pierpont ro see me.

"Great.  I have been waiting for him.  Please show him in."

Q

Franklin Pierpont walked into my life that day.  My heart ❤ started racing and I remember what my mother had told me.

"Hi he said.  I am Franklin, but my friends call me "Buzz". I looked at him with a questioning look.

I used to get buzz cuts when I was a kid.  I was the laughing stock of all my classmates.  But I liked the nickname and it definitely stuck.

"Anyway, I got into baking shortly after I finished high school and attended the Culinary Institute in Beardsley and chose baking as my niche.  Since I love apples of any kind, I chose to come here to Basin and open up the Adams Apple."

"How is it working out for you?"

"Not bad.  The town people are pretty nice and more folks are starting to come in, but I have to give it time."

He looked over to me and gave me a shy smile.  "Well why don't we get started".  Sure I said.

We worked all morning and looked at dozens of muffin recipes, but found nothing really unique,  It was really easy to make muffins, but there were no recipes that stood out from the rest.

"Well I know that you like apples and I love to use thick sweet cream and lemons in my cakes so why don't we start with that?"

We had been working so hard when I suddenly glanced up and saw that it was almost six and I was getting really hungry.  "Well lets end for tonight and will resume tomorrow morning."

"You must be hungry.  May I take you out to dinner.  We coulc go have something to eat at the Carousel.  I know the owner personally and I know we could get a fine dinner."

"Sure I said."

As we started to walk to the Carousel, I started to really study him.  He was pretty good looking with short brown hair, light blue eyes and about half of a foot taller than I.  He had an older sister who was married and a younger brother who was a junior in high school.

l learned all this as we sat there during dinner enjoying a roasted duck in orange sauce and white wine.  I had never tasted such good food before.  I was very simple and could enjoy any fast food meal or a quick slice of pizza.

When dinner was over he drove me home,  As I was getting ready to get out of the car, he turned to me suddenly and asked if he could kiss me.  (I really wanted him to kiss me).  I nodded my head slightly and when he kissed me, I started to have stars in my eyes and my mothers words came back to me again.

☆☆☆☆☆

By the third day we had come up with a unique country muffin which included all our favored ingredients including fresh apples and blueberries, sweet cream with artificial sugar and a lemony kick.

I was pretty artistic and placed the recipe on a flowered menu stick.  Frank actually baked the muffins and cut them into small portions for anyone who wanted to taste it for themselves.

Of course we won the contest and our perspective bakeries became popular.

So you might now ask what had transpired with our relationship.  Frank and I dated for the next two years and we got married on Christmas day.